J. Bruce Harreld
Senior Lecturer of Business Administration
Bruce Harreld retired from IBM in 2008 and joined Harvard Business School's faculty in early 2009. He is a frequent speaker and writer on implementing strategy, corporate transformation, and building new businesses in established organizations. He currently teaches two quite popular second year MBA courses focused on turnarounds and executing strategy. He teaches in numerous executive programs and is the faculty chair of "Building New Businesses within Established Organizations". Joining IBM in October 1995, he worked to chart IBM’s transformation and to ensure that IBM’s early-90s "near-death experience" will never happen again. From 1995 to his retirement in 2008 Mr. Harreld led IBM’s Strategy unit, which was responsible for the formulation and execution of the company’s overall strategy. As part of this responsibility, Mr. Harreld directed IBM’s Emerging Business Opportunities (EBO) program, a unique management system producing more than 20 new businesses for IBM – including multi-billion-dollar businesses in Life Sciences, Linux, Pervasive Computing, and Digital Media. The EBO program has become a model for growth inside IBM, and has attracted attention from leading academic institutions as well as companies seeking to build new businesses. From 2006 to 2008, Mr. Harreld also served as senior vice president for IBM Marketing. In that capacity, he led IBM's marketing efforts which encompassed a wide range of growth activities designed to identify market opportunities, develop and communicate IBM’s value proposition, coordinate go-to-market activities, as well as protect and strengthen the IBM brand, which is one of the most valued brands in the world. Prior to joining IBM, Mr. Harreld was president of Boston Chicken, Inc., and served on the faculty of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He also held CIO and several line management positions at Kraft General Foods, Inc., and began his career at The Boston Consulting Group where he served as an officer and director. Mr. Harreld holds an MBA degree from Harvard University and a BS in industrial engineering and operations research from Purdue University.
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Working Paper
| HBS Working Paper Series
| 2009
Don't Just Survive - Thrive: Leading Innovation in Good Times and Bad
Lynda M. Applegate and J. Bruce Harreld
Battered by contracting markets and frozen credit, many businesses today are fighting for survival. Indeed, the current global financial crisis provides a mandate for restructuring. But survival is not the end goal. In fact, cost cutting and restructuring are simply the first steps in repositioning and leading a company and industry through the crisis and in defining how business will be conducted in the future. This paper describes how IBM managed to, not just survive the crisis it faced in the early 1990s, but to reposition the company to lead the industry. The powerful lesson from the IBM story is that innovation is not a side business to running the real business. Innovation is the business. Breakthrough innovations that change people's lives and the very structure and power dynamics of industries can't be managed as "silos," tucked away in corporate, university, or government research labs, in incubators, or within venture capital funded entrepreneurial start-ups. Access to the marketplace is needed to help speed commercialization and adoption. Emerging opportunities must be nurtured and the transition to high growth must be managed. Once breakthrough innovations catch hold, growth must be funded and managed to exploit the full value of the opportunity. And finally, incremental innovations must ensure that businesses that have passed through the high growth stage can continue to deliver the resources, capabilities, and platforms needed to fuel the emerging opportunities of the future. This business lifecycle view of innovation requires new leadership and organizational models and new approaches to managing risk and uncertainty.
Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation;
Risk Management;
Leading Change;
Innovation and Management;
Crisis Management;
Growth and Development Strategy;
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2012
(Revised from original 2010 version)
Chrysler Fiat 2009
J. Bruce Harreld, Paul W. Marshall and David Lane
In spring 2009, Chrysler entered a prepackaged bankruptcy and existed 40 days later in a deal with Fiat, the U.S. Treasury, and the UAW that kept the automaker alive. Looking forward, what was necessary for Chrysler to move beyond the life support it had received? What was possible? Looking back, how should the company's restructuring be assessed?
Citation: Harreld, J. Bruce, Paul W. Marshall, and David Lane. " Chrysler Fiat 2009." Harvard Business School Case 811-030, April 2012. (Revised from original November 2010 version.)
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Teaching Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2012
Chrysler Fiat 2009 (TN)
J. Bruce Harreld
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
Felipe Calderón: Leading with Light and Power (A)
J. Bruce Harreld and David Lane
This sequence of cases explores how leaders get their team focused on framing, analyzing, and ultimately acting upon complex decisions. The A case provides an inside look as President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, works with his cabinet ministers to decide how to turnaround a corrupt, highly unionized, and poorly managed state-owned company which distributes electrical energy to Mexico City and the surrounding environs. While previous administrations over several decades were aware of the problem, none wanted to risk the political or economic consequences of prolonged strikes and power outages in one of the world's most populous cities. Yet, it is now clear that the company's poor financial performance and corruption are causing significant harm to Mexico. A central theme is the president's role in making sure his team has done its homework and is fully prepared to make the appropriate decision. The B case, to be handed out during class, provides the actual decision criteria used. The C case, to be handed out at the end of class, describes what the team ultimately decided and how they executed it.
Keywords: Crime and Corruption;
Decisions;
Public Sector;
Leadership;
Conflict and Resolution;
Power and Influence;
Urban Development;
Welfare or Wellbeing;
Citation: Harreld, J. Bruce, and David Lane. "Felipe Calderón: Leading with Light and Power (A)." Harvard Business School Case 811-024, April 2011.
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Supplement
| HBS Case Collection
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2011
Felipe Calderón: Leading with Light and Power (B)
J. Bruce Harreld and David Lane
This sequence of cases explores how leaders get their team focused on framing, analyzing, and ultimately acting upon complex decisions. The A case provides an inside look as President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, works with his cabinet ministers to decide how to turnaround a corrupt, highly unionized, and poorly managed state-owned company which distributes electrical energy to Mexico City and the surrounding environs. While previous administrations over several decades were aware of the problem, none wanted to risk the political or economic consequences of prolonged strikes and power outages in one of the world's most populous cities. Yet, it is now clear that the company's poor financial performance and corruption are causing significant harm to Mexico. A central theme is the president's role in making sure his team has done its homework and is fully prepared to make the appropriate decision. The B case, to be handed out during class, provides the actual decision criteria used. The C case, to be handed out at the end of class, describes what the team ultimately decided and how they executed it.
Keywords: Management Analysis, Tools, and Techniques;
Decision Choices and Conditions;
Cases;
Crime and Corruption;
State Ownership;
Business or Company Management;
Economics;
Risk and Uncertainty;
Finance;
Performance;
Management Teams;
Strategic Planning;
Energy Industry;
Mexico City;
Citation: Harreld, J. Bruce, and David Lane. "Felipe Calderón: Leading with Light and Power (B)." Harvard Business School Supplement 811-080, April 2011.
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Case
| HBS Case Collection
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2009
Finance Myopia in a Systems Business
J. Bruce Harreld
This short case describes the tensions that often arise between finance executives attempting to curtail unproductive activities and strategy executives trying to optimize overall firm performance.
Keywords: Finance;
Managerial Roles;
Performance Improvement;
Performance Productivity;
Conflict and Resolution;
Strategy;
Competition;
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Background Note
| HBS Case Collection
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2009
(Revised from original 2009 version)
Executing Strategy
J. Bruce Harreld
This is a note to introduce the principles for effectively implementing a new strategy. It emphasizes the interdependence of strategy and execution in developing and sustaining superior competitive performance. Primarily based on the notion that strategy should be a continual activity conducted by general managers, it outlines a practical methodology for realigning a firm's executional model whenever strategy changes.
Keywords: Alignment;
Competitive Strategy;
Management Teams;
Citation: Harreld, J. Bruce. " Executing Strategy." Harvard Business School Background Note 809-126, May 2009. (Revised from original March 2009 version.)
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